5 Little Things to Clean During Your Bonus Daylight Saving Hour

Reminder: Daylight Saving Time will officially end while you’re sleeping (at 2 AM on Sunday morning). While it’s a bummer that it will be getting darker earlier, setting the clocks back this weekend also means that most of us will get one free hour to use however we see fit. We suggest penciling in a few of these five very satisfying little tasks — and then getting a full night’s sleep.

1. Scrub the bottoms of your pots and pans.

Do these technically need to be clean? Maybe not. Do they look amazing when they are? Oh yeah! I recently tackled a bunch of bottoms of pots and pans with Bar Keeper’s Friend and a scrubby sponge and it felt so good to get them gleaming. Whatever your preferred method, this is a fun (at the very least, fun-ish) task to get elbows-deep in.

2. Declutter your utensils.

The problem with decluttering is it can take you down a meandering path — remembering the times you used things last and promising yourself that this really is the year you’ll use that fill-in-the-bank you just had to have at Sur la Table. Don’t overload yourself (after all, you’re getting a free hour, not a whole day!) and just do the utensil drawer for now. Weed out stained spatulas, broken gadgets, and anything you truly don’t use.

3. Clean out underneath the sink.

Yes, the place where you stash your cleaning supplies gets dirty, too! Moisture from the activity above, tiny spills, and the straight-up fact that you never clean it makes this a super-satisfying spot to dig into. Pull everything out, consolidate mostly empty bottles (but never, ever mix cleansers because they could have a dangerous reaction), and make a list of things that need to be replaced the next time you go to the store.

4. Or clean the actual sink.

The kitchen sink is a super germ-ridden place: You fill it with warm water, let food particles hang out there all day, wash your egg yolk-covered hands in it. (You get the idea.) Get it clean and then learn how to keep things that way.

More on Cleaning the Sink

5. Polish your silverware.

Is it just a coincidence that this bonus hour comes a few weeks before Thanksgiving? Use it as an opportunity to polish all your good silverware that you only break out for the holidays. I find polishing to be tedious when I’m doing it right before a big event, but really fulfilling while listening to a podcast with a glass of wine. Take before/after photos and send them to your mom. She’ll be so proud.